Custom jewelry making and jewelry repair work requires exacting and meticulous attention to detail, particularly during soldering operations. Jewelers must have both hands free to handle a torch and shaping tools, etc., and, therefore, need a versatile and reliable holder for the jewelry item on which they are working. Prior art jewelry holders take a variety of forms, including spring loaded tweezers, adjustable vises, set screw operated retainers, etc. Often these holders are held in position by adjustable tension ball joints. Examples of some of these types of prior art jewelry work holders are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 679,257 to Ford, entitled VISE; 3,055,329 to Door, entitled FINGER RING HOLDER; 3,112,104 to Jerore, entitled UNIVERSALLY ADJUSTABLE WORK HOLDER; 4,171,800 to Weaver, entitled BENCH MOUNTED SUPPORT FOR JEWELRY ARTICLES AND THE LIKE; and 4,744,552 to Glaser, entitled CRAFTSMAN'S JEWELRY SUPPORT TOOL.
Jewelry soldering operations generate intense and concentrated heat, some of which is transferred to the holder. This concentrated heat causes expansion of the metal parts of the holder, which then contract as they cool. This causes set screws and ball joints to loosen, and the expansion and contraction of tweezer-type holders can actually cause the jewelry item to be spring ejected. In order to counteract these effects, a jeweler is required to make adjustments to the holders during soldering operations. Each time a jeweler pauses to make adjustments to the holder, he or she loses valuable time as well as wasting fuel for a torch which is lit. Also, manually adjusting a hot holder can result in bums to a jeweler's hand or hands.
Furthermore, during most jewelry creation or repair jobs, the jewelry piece must be repositioned, sometimes several times, in order to access all sides of the piece. During any soldering operation, it is best to continue until finished since every time a jeweler stops and reflows the solder, alloys within the solder become brittle and porous, developing pitting and oxidation, thus impeding the flow of solder. Furthermore, each time a quantity of solder is re-flowed, a higher temperature is required to melt it. These higher temperatures can adversely affect the precious metal alloys in the jewelry piece itself, often causing it to become weak and brittle, thus limiting its durability. For jewelry holders which are fixed in place, each time the piece must be repositioned, the jeweler must stop what he is doing and either move physically to the other side of the holder, physically move the holder itself, or take the piece out of the holder and turn it around. In addition to the above-enumerated problems of interrupting and restarting work, again, by manually contacting the holder or jewelry piece, the jeweler runs the risk of burning himself.
It is clear, then, that a need exists for an improved jewelry clamp. Such an improved clamp should preferably avoid the problems associated with prior art clamps, i.e. it should not require manual adjustment during work on any given jewelry piece, it should securely clamp the jewelry piece regardless of the temperatures to which it is subjected, it should allow quick and easy placement and removal of the jewelry piece, and it should permit the jeweler to easily access all sides of the clamped jewelry piece.